


Alex Only Swears When He’s Upset

by Drive-By Drabbles (DriveByDrabbles)



Category: Emma Approved
Genre: Angst, Gen, Post-Episode 64, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-07-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 08:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2017848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DriveByDrabbles/pseuds/Drive-By%20Drabbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just after the Boxx opening night fallout, Emma reflects on just how rare it is that Alex swears and what that means to their relationship.</p><p>Head’s up: there’s swearing involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alex Only Swears When He’s Upset

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short piece that came to me while reading through the hordes of Tumblr posts after the Boxx Hill incident (Episode 64). Barely proof-read so please excuse the typos and grammatical errors. 
> 
> Originally posted on Tumblr at http://drivebydrabbles.tumblr.com/post/92786241091/ea-fic-alex-only-swears-when-hes-upset

_“That’s bullshit.”_

The first time Emma heard Alex swear was in high school.  She was a junior and learning to stretch her independence and wanting to differentiate herself from her accomplished older sister whom the teachers loved.  Where and why she decided that swearing was going to be part of this, she can’t remember. But adults swear, right?  Maybe that was why.

In November the Woodhouses and Knightleys had their traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  Alex was home from university where he had entered his junior year at Stanford.  He was regaling tales of group projects gone awry making Emma laugh when she blurted, “That’s fuckin’ hilarious!”  Alex was taken aback at Emma’s uncharacteristically salty language.  

“What did you just say?”

“When?”  Emma looked confused; she had spent nearly three months developing her swearing skills at school. She controlled it at home (father wouldn’t approve) but Alex was her age, right?

“Emma, you just said the f-word.”

“Oh come on, Alex, I’m not a little girl any more! This is the twenty-first century, not the nineteenth! I’ll bet you swear all the time at school.”

“I do not, as a matter of fact, swear all the time at school. Emma, we were raised better than that. Don’t you hear how it makes you sound?”

“Like an adult?”

“Uncouth. Childish.  Unrefined.”

“Pfft. Fuck that!”

Alex’s face hardened.  “All right, Emma.  If you want to talk that way, I’ll address you that way.”  For the next two hours, whenever their parents weren’t in earshot, Alex would whisper something to Emma using the foulest, crudest metaphors he could recall from his frat house and the locker room.  Emma’s ears burned at the sheer variety of uses of the f-word and vulgar humour spewing from Alex’s mouth.  She fled to her bedroom to avoid hearing any more and it wasn’t until he was leaving that he came up to find her curled up on her bed.

“I don’t want to hear any more, Alex!”  Emma pulled a pillow over her head.

“I know you don’t, Emma, that’s why I’m not here. But you see what I mean, right? Do you want me to sound like that all the time? Because that’s where you’ll end up if you keep talking the way you are. You’re so much better than that.”

Emma knew he was right. Alex wasn’t Alex when he was talking like that.  Sure, he was nerdy and bookish and smart, but always found a _proper_ way to express what he was feeling.  Emma liked that about him.

The second time was a few years later in college.  Alex was back in the area pursuing his MBA at UCLA where Emma was doing her undergrad.  They saw considerably more of each other as a result and Alex helped Emma through some rough term papers or boyfriend troubles. She was over at Alex’s apartment a lot, which did not go over well with his girlfriend.   Their breakup came when Alex gave Emma a key to his apartment.  She had just unlocked the door when the sound of breaking flatware on the floor and angry shouting stopped her just on the other side with the door open a crack.

“Sal, this is ridiculous. Emma just a friend, a _family_ friend!  I told you, we’ve known each other since we were kids! Hell, she’s my sister-in-law!”

“Childhood friends aren’t here all the time cozying up to you for term paper help.  You never have time for me anymore. _You gave her a key to the apartment._ ”  

In the hallway, Emma winced and glanced down at the key still in the lock.  She knew Sal didn’t like her, but this was intense.

“I’m sorry about that, Sally. Really.  Look, can we work this out tonight? Emma’s about—“

“Emma, Emma, Emma! I’m so _sick_ of hearing her name here!  I swear that prissy little whore has you wrapped around her finger.  You have to choose, Alex.  Her or me. Right now, or it’s over.”  

Emma’s jaw dropped and staggered back a step into the center of the hallway at the insult.  There was a long pause before Alex answered, but Emma heard it clearly.

“Then it’s over.  I can’t be with someone who makes me choose between her and my friends and family.  Get out.”

“Fuck you, Alex Knightley!”  Loud angry stomps got louder until the door was pulled open and Alex’s now ex-girlfriend came face to face with her nemesis.  Emma clutched her purse to her chest like a shield, a poor defense from the pure venom Sally was projecting.  “Bitch,” Sally spat and stalked to the stairwell.

Biting her lip, Emma pushed open the door to the apartment. She passed the kitchen and saw food and a shattered plate on the ground.  Farther in Alex was at the dining room table cradling his head over an untouched dinner. “Alex?” she squeaked.

“I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT!” Alex roared then checked himself when he glanced up to see Emma. “Emma, no, sorry that wasn’t meant for you. I’m sorry.”

Emma must have looked like she was going to cry because she found herself wrapped in a hug. “I’m sorry, Alex. I heard at the door. It’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.  I’m sorry you had to hear that.”

They stood there in the dining room holding each other for long minutes.  The familiar presence of an old friend helped to calm them both down.  Emma helped Alex clean up the mess in the kitchen and they shared what was left of dinner.  Later that night, she reflected about the evening.  It was only the second time she heard Alex swearing and both times were when he was upset.

The day after the Boxx Hill event, a distraught, wrung out Emma was hugging a pillow soaked with tears at the collapse of her friendships and possibly her business.  Alex’s conversation kept playing itself over and over in her head and she remembered. That was only the third time she heard him swear, this time because of her. And just like Sally, she might never see him again.

The pillow never got dry that night.


End file.
